Yes, motherhood can twist your morals so badly that you pick on disabled people

Mothers have a lot in common with disabled people – being both low in status and lazily revered as saints. Which makes it especially strange, and sad, that a tribal war should have broken out between us. There have been reports of border skirmishes for some time. Should able-bodied parents be allowed to change their babies in the disabled loo? And on public transport, whose need is greater: the wheelchair user, or the frazzled, sleep-deprived mum?

Back in February 2012, Doug Paulley, who is disabled, attempted to board a bus from Wetherby to Leeds. But the area of the bus designated for wheelchair users was occupied by a mother with a sleeping child in a pushchair. She refused to fold it up,...